Gender

Lady Justice Does Not Have Enough Female Friends

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The Center for Women in Government & Civil Society recently released a study [PDF] about female judges. Their main finding: there are not very many of them. (Duh.)

Looking at judgeships on both the federal and state level, women account for just 26% of all seats (5,015 seats), while men occupy 74%, or 14,335 seats.

The Center points out that the problem is not that there aren’t enough female lawyers: “Women make up 48% of law school graduates and 45% of law firm associates.” Update: As commenters point out, this doesn’t take into account the question of age. Perhaps “with time, this too will pass”?

Obviously, the answer is that men have the power and men suck. Or, as the Center more delicately puts it: “The gender gap cannot be attributed to the lack of women who are qualified to serve on the bench, but to the lack of opportunity and access afforded to women.”

The men in New Hampshire and Montana suck the most. And despite what Jersey Shore would lead you to believe, the men in New Jersey suck the least….


Montana and New Hampshire are in the gender hall of shame, with no female federal judges. To be fair, these states don’t have many federal judges to begin with. Just seven each. Only Vermont has fewer federal judges — at 4. But one of them is a woman.

Connecticut and New Jersey like the ladies. They have the highest percentages of Lady Justices, at 38% and 44%, respectively. The Center celebrates these two states for surpassing the “critical mass of 33% (the point at which women start exercising significant influence).”

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We’re not sure what that means exactly, but it suggests that the Supreme Court needs to replace a male justice with a lady stat.

Lists, pretty diagrams, and data breakdowns abound in the 15-page report. Check it out for yourself here.

Study: Lack of Opportunity & Access Keeps Women from Serving as Judges [ABA Journal]
Women in Federal and State-level Judgeships [Center for Women in Government & Civil Society]

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